Toshiba Satellite L745D latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Toshiba Satellite L745D latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The new Satellite L745D features an adequate selection of ports. You get three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet and amemory card slot in addition to the DVD drive. There is no ExpressCard slot for adding new ports and Toshiba neglected to include either USB 3.0.The screen lid and the top panel that surrounds the keyboard are both made of thin glossy plastics with a brown "dot matrix" pattern. I'm sure the glossy plastics look good on display in stores but the all-gloss surface is prone of picking up smudges from fingerprints as well as any other specks of dirt that come into contact with the laptop.The only parts of this laptop that feel particularly durable...

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Gateway ID47H07u latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Gateway ID47H07u latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The fairly large 3.9 x 2.3-inch Synaptics ClickPad has a slick, glossy surface with a unique blue color. Navigating thedesktop wasn't difficult, but the touchpad picks up fingerprints easily and creates a little more friction that we'd prefer. Multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom worked, but weren't as smooth as we would like. Those who use the touchpad with two fingers will experience some jerkiness. You can also scroll with two fingers and use a four-finger swipe down to show the desktop at any time. The Gateway ID47H07u's 14.1-inch, 1366 x 768 glossy screen provided sharp, rich images. When we tried watching both a 1080p QuickTime trailer for Immortals...

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Acer Aspire 5735Z latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Acer Aspire 5735Z latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The Aspire 5735Z has one of the new 16:9 aspect ratio displays; most notebooks have 16:10 displays, so 16:9 screens are wider than usual. The 5735Z’s panel measures 15.6” diagonally and has a 1366x768 pixels resolution (a typical 16:10 display is 15.4” diagonally and has a 1280x800 resolution). It takes some time to get used to the extra-wide 16:9 display.Only 768 pixels of vertical space mean a lot of scrolling, but it is difficult to throw up any flags here given the price point of this notebook. The extra wide resolution means working with two windows side-by-side is doable. The 5735Z has a no-frills plastic construction and a relatively simple design. It feels...

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Lenovo IdeaPad U260 Latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Lenovo IdeaPad U260 Latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: Lenovo's IdeaPad family is intended for style-conscious users, compared with the quietly professional-looking, all-black business-oriented ThinkPad family. The unit feels reassuringly solid, without being too heavy even with the small lightweight AC adapter and its cords, you can carry this around all day without any strain or inconvenience. And the chassis feels solid; when I carefully twisted the edges, it didn't seem to bend. The IdeaPad U260 has a magnesium-alloy shell, with "metallic brushed" and "textured patterns etched into the cover," according to Lenovo. Translation, it feels smooth but not slippery. The U260 comes in either Clementine Orange or Mocha...

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Sony VAIO EA latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Sony VAIO EA latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The Sony VAIO EA has a screen lid, palm rests and touchpad plastics are made with overlapping layers of clear acrylic with different patterns on different layers. The end result is a multi-layer design that looks a bit like the scrolling pixel code in The Matrix movies. Don't let that description prevent you from considering this laptop; the effect is pretty subtle since the layered patterns are done using the same color as the rest of the laptop. Most people won't even notice the design on the lid or palm rests unless they are within a few feet of your laptop.Sony engineers were kind enough to include two access panels on the bottom of the chassis that allow you...

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Acer Aspire 7740 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Acer Aspire 7740 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The design tapers off at the front giving the palmrest a nice sharp edge. The color scheme is well thought-out with a glossy, dark-blue screen-cover,metallic blue palmrest and keyboard trim, and black keyboard. The only visible branding is a moderately sized Acer logo displayed front and center. One aspect that concerned us was the amount of space left open around the keyboard that could have been used for multimedia keys or other functions.Build quality of the Aspire 7740 is above average with a solid body that doesn't have much flex. The screen cover provides decent impact protection for the LCD and doesn't allow the screen to be distorted unless firmly pressed from...

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Lenovo ThinkPad W520 latest Reviews, Specs, Prices

 Lenovo ThinkPad W520 latest Reviews, Specs, Prices: Lenovo ThinkPad W520 is Lenovo's upgrade to the W510 mobile workstation notebook. This 15.6-inch notebook is powered by up to an Intel Core i7-2920XM processor and equipped with up to a discrete NVIDIA Quadro 2000M GPU, switchable to Intel HD integrated graphics. Like last year’s model, the full HD (FHD)displays on the 1920 x 1080 resolution models have a 95% color gamut and a huey PRO color calibration system application. ThinkPad workstations have always been known to be top-of-the-line, updated systems in terms of performance, FHD display, build quality, battery and power consumption, and carry a host of features such as the Fingerprint Reader, nice upgrade options,...

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Dell Latitude E6410 latest Reviews, Specs, Prices

Dell Latitude E6410 latest Reviews, Specs, Prices: The Dell Latitude E6410 has a very modern look and feel, with a few changes this generation to give a nod towards past models. The E6400 brought the latest body style, with a black alloy shell. The E6410 this time around keeps the body style, but switches back to the gunmetal gray coloring scheme which was found on the D630 and D620 before it. The finish has a pseudo-brushed appearance (painted, not actual brushed metal like on the HP EliteBook) that seems to resist fingerprints more than the real thing. The lower half of the notebook keeps the black metal design, with a large service panel that lets you access everything in the notebook by removing a single screw. The...

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Acer Aspire 6920 latest laptop Reviews, Specs, Prices

Acer Aspire 6920 latest laptop Reviews, Specs, Prices: The design of the Gemstone Blue series is a bit unlike anything I have played with or experienced before. Acer paid attention to all of the minor details when designing this notebook, leaving no surface untouched of some sort of special feature. The screen cover which can generally be a pretty basic element of a notebook has a very advanced look to it. It consisted of multiple layers and soft gradient changes from dark blue around the edges to a semi-transparent blue in the center. It is a subtle touch that you don't notice at first, but once you do it is pretty awesome.Acer shares the same plastic trim and palmrest between models, and if your notebook didn't come...

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Lenovo ThinkPad T420 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Lenovo ThinkPad T420 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The T420 has a solid array of input and output ports. It's also worth noting the T420 has a docking station port on its underside - Lenovo sells several different models, all offering plug-and-play compatibility and connections to many more ports. This functionality is a feature of a true business notebook;lower-end "business" notebooks do not have them, nor do consumer models. All picture descriptions are left to right.The chassis strength is excellent; T-series Think Pads have strong internal frames that prevent flex. This is good for the internal circuit boards - the less they flex the better in the long term. The lid is securely anchored to the chassis via...

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Dell Latitude E5410 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

The Dell Latitude E5410 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The Dell Latitude E5410 looks a lot like its bigger brother the E6410, but with a plastic shell instead of metal alloy. This notebook is for Dell what the lower-priced R-series ThinkPad is for Lenovo. It gives businesses another option, with a greater business focus, over the standard consumer-oriented models.From a design standpoint the E5410 looks a lot like the E6410, but with a plastic body. The design is very business, with black and grey panels, squared off edges, and a pointing stick located on the keyboard. Dell kept the look and feel almost exactly like its E6410, instead of giving it the routine of most small-business notebooks which look or feel...

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HP Mini 1103 latest Netbook Reviews, Specs, Prices

HP Mini 1103 latest Netbook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The HP Mini 1103 has the same upgrade friendly design we've seen on multiple HP netbooks and notebooks. Simply remove the battery from the back of the netbook, slide the orange release switch to one side and you can remove the entire bottom plate of the Mini 1103. You only need to use a screwdriver if you plan to remove the hard drive or wireless cards.The HP Mini 1103 features three USB 2.0 ports, VGA-out, one audio headset jack, and Ethernet. The system also includes a SDHC card slot. This isn't aparticularly impressive collection of ports for a business notebook, but the port selection here is par for the course when it comes to netbooks. When the screen lid is closed...

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Sony VAIO EC latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Sony VAIO EC latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: Sony VAIO EC latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices:The Sony VAIO EC is a 17-inch mainstream and multimedia laptop from Sony. The E-series notebooks are the most affordable full-featured notebooks in the VAIO product line and you can probably argue that the "E" stands for "Economy class." The laptop body is made of a combination of matte and polished black plastics. All of the plastics feel firm with creaking sounds when you apply pressure to the chassis. That said, given the size of the notebook, those plastics are spread out over such a large area that the notebook exterior bends and flexes under firm pressure.The screen lid and notebook base are made of matte plastics while the...

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Acer Aspire 7740 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Acer Aspire 7740 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: Aspire 7740 is above average with a solid body that doesn't have much flex. The screen cover provides decent impact protection for the LCD and doesn't allow the screen to be distorted unless firmly pressed from the back side. The glossy paint on the screen lid resists light scratches and seems to hold up under normal daily abuse from carrying it around. The palmrest and keyboard trim resist smudging and managed to stay clean throughout most of the review period.Inside, the palmrest and keyboard show little or no flex under pressure. The palmrest doesn't compress one millimeter when squeezed with extreme force. The rigid chassis does a good job of holding up the body panels attached...

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HP Pavilion dv7t latest Multimedia Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

HP Pavilion dv7t latest Multimedia Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The new HP Pavilion dv7t consists of umber-colored glossy plastic materials with a hard metallic finish. HP has been known to go mostly for style overfunctionality in its build quality in the 17-inch entertainment notebook realm, but this time around the outer build quality seems to have improved greatly from the last 17-inch dv7t.As far as design goes, the notebook has a dark brown color (labeled as "umber") and the all-over brushed metallic gives the notebook a nice textured look. The brushed metallic finish has greatly progressed the build quality from last time; now the exterior frame of the notebook feels stronger and the overall build quality...

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Lenovo IdeaPad Z370 latest Reviews, Specs, Prices

Lenovo IdeaPad Z370 latest Reviews, Specs, Prices: Lenovo's new 13.3-inch value notebook has a great-looking design, a comfortable keyboard and is easy to carry. Is this Intel Core i5-equipped laptop a worthy travel companion? We take an in-depth look.Lenovo has historically done a good job of making their budget notebooks look more expensive than their price tag; the IdeaPad Z370 ($629) continues that trend. The palm rest and surround is brushed aluminum which feels and looks great. The chassis is strongand resists twisting as well as a business class notebook; this is always important in a portable notebook since it prevents the internal circuit boards from bending and eventually failing due to stress cracks in solder points. The...

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Acer Aspire One D250 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Acer Aspire One D250 latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The Acer Aspire One D250-1165 is a low-cost version of the new D250 series netbooks and features a smaller battery and no Bluetooth in order to drop theretail price below $300. One very interesting item of note is that the D250 is actually slightly thinner than the original Acer Aspire One 150 series which used a smaller 8.9-inch screen. Like the original Aspire One, the D250 uses glossy plastics on the top of the screen cover as well as around the entire LCD. At times the reflective boarder does get on your nerves if you are in a brightly lit room with many sources of glare.Build quality looks quite good and the construction feels strong enough to handle being tossed...

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Sony VAIO F Latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices

Sony VAIO F Latest Notebook Reviews, Specs, Prices: The VAIO F has a run-of-the-mill look; the only notable physical features are the backlit keyboard and the green power button on the right side of the notebook. The F is constructed of all plastic and doesn't pretend otherwise. An all-plastic construction is not necessarily a bad thing, however; the VAIO F feels quite sturdy if a bit hollow. Gripping the chassis by the corners and twisting produces minimal movement in the chassis, which is what I like to see; this prevents the internal circuit boards from bending.The display flexes easily when twisted by the corners. No ripples appear on the screen when pressure is applied from the back, which indicates there is adecent...

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ASUS N55S Latest Multimedia laptop Reviews, Specs, Prices

ASUS N55S Latest Multimedia laptop Reviews, Specs, Prices: The N55S is constructed of plastic and reasonably strong plastic at that; the palm rest barely flexes when pressed down upon. I'm greatly appreciative that,ASUS used anti-glare plastic instead of glossy plastic, which is all too common on consumer notebooks. Chassis flex is average for a consumer notebook;nothing alarming, however. Fit and finish is good; there are no uneven gaps between parts or sharp edges.The N55S has an average selection of ports for a multimedia notebook although it is good to see two USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports. It lacks eSATA, an ExpressCard expansion slot, and DisplayPort. The absence of those ports might better. The exterior is an aesthetically pleasing...

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